The ideology and doctrine of
Syrian Social Nationalism are best approached by a study of the central document
that contains the basic and reform principles of the SSNP and the elaboration of
their implications. This major document that originated as a pamphlet written by
Saadeh in a single day in prison, and later developed through subsequent
editions, found its final format in 1947. The principles have remained in their
essence unaltered since the inception of the first organizational structure of
the SSNP. During the founding period, the diffusion of SSNP ideology relied on
the text of the principles, basic and reform, without the explanatory part.

The eight basic principles of the
SSNP embody the doctrine of Syrian nationalism. They proceed in a logical order
from a declaration of the existence and nature of the Syrian nation (first
principle), to an identification of the character of its cause (second and third
principles), to a clarification of its genesis (the fourth principle) and its
homeland (fifth principle). The basis of national unity (sixth principle), the
sources of national character and consciousness (seventh principle), and the
guiding principles of national militancy (eighth principle) are then defined.

Fourth Basic Principle:The Syrian
nation is the product of the ethnic unity of the Syrian people which developed
throughout history.

Fifth Basic Principle: The Syrian
homeland is that geographic environment in which the Syrian nation evolved. It
has distinct natural boundaries and extends from the Taurus range in the
northwest and the Zagros mountains in the northeast to the Suez canal and the
Red Sea in the south and includes the Sinai peninsula and the gulf of Aqaba, and
from the Syrian sea in the west, including the island of Cyprus, to the arch of
the Arabian desert and the Persian gulf in the east. (This region is also known
as the Syrian Fertile Crescent).

Saadeh's objective was not only to
define the national identity of the Syrians but also to set in motion a movement
that would revive the Syrian nation and make it possible for Syria to become a
modern and viable entity. This meant the need to change the pattern of the
social, political, and economic life of his people. The SSNP was thus conceived
as an agent of change and represents the first concrete effort in Syria towards
the total modernization of society. Since the main purpose of the Party is the
generation of national renaissance, its doctrine does not restrict itself to
defining the national cause and determining the national identity, but also
identifies the goals to be achieved.

The change that the Party
envisages is a comprehensive one that seeks to rebuild society in accordance
with a distinct social philosophy. The tenets of this philosophy are embodied in
the reform principles. Though directed mainly against the corrupt social
conditions of the nation, they are not meant to be temporary. They embody the
social philosophy of the Party just as the basic principles embody its
nationalist doctrine.

Fourth Reform Principle: The abolition
of feudalism, the organization of national economy on the basis of production
and the protection of the rights of labour and the interests of the nation and
the state.

Fifth Reform Principles: Formation of
strong armed forces which will be effective in determining the destiny
of the country and the nation.

When I began to give serious thought to the
resuscitation of our nation against the background of the irresponsible
political movements rampant in its midst, it became forthwith certain to me that
our most urgent problem was the determination of our national identity and our
social reality. Although there was no consensus of opinion concerning this
problem, I became convinced that the starting point of every correct national
endeavor must be the raising of this fundamental philosophical question: Who are
we?. After extensive research, I arrived at the following conclusion: We are
Syrians and we constitute a distinct national entity.

The confused conceptions of our nation implied in
the statements such as `we Lebanese', 'Palestinians-,-Syrians','Iraqis-, or
'Arabs-,have contributed to the breaking up of our national identity and cannot
serve as the basis of a genuine national consciousness or of our national
revival. Thus the assertion that the Syrians constitute a nation complete in
itself is a fundamental doctrine which should put and end to ambiguity and place
the national effort on the basis of clarity without which no national revival in
Syria is possible. The realization of the complete nationhood of the Syrians and
the active consciousness of this nationhood are two essential prerequisites for
the vindication of the principle of national sovereignty. For, were the Syrians
not a complete nation having right to sovereignty and to the establishment of an
independent state, Syria would not be for the Syrians in the full sense, but
might fail an easy prey to the intrigues of some other sovereign power pursuing
interests conflicting with, or that might conflict with the interests of the
Syrian people.

This principle is intended to safeguard the unity
of the Syrian nation and the integrity of its homeland. The Syrians are a nation
upon whom alone devolves the right to own, dispose of, and make decisions
concerning every inch of Syrian territory. The homeland belongs to the nation as
a whole and no one, not even individual Syrian citizens, may dispose of any part
of its territory in such a way as to destroy or endanger the integrity of the
country, which integrity is a necessary condition for preserving the unity of
the Syrian nation.

This principle addresses the basic
question posed by any thinking about national struggle, namely the determination
of national identity. The starting point of every national endeavor is the
determination of national identity which is the only viable basis of national
consciousness and the starting point of national revival. In this principle lies
the legal basis of national sovereignty. In essence, this principle announces
the illegitimacy in the eyes of the SSNP of all international treaties,
alliances or schemes that may affect the Syrian homeland in a fashion contrary
to the real interests and wishes of the Syrian nation. This principle is the
historical response to the Sykes-Picot arrangements of dividing the Syrian
homeland into spheres of interest between France and Britain in the wake of the
First World War. It is a resounding refusal of the right of Britain to issue the
Balfour declaration promising to facilitate the settlement of Zionists in
southern Syria (Palestine) and the creation of a Jewish homeland, and a
rejection of the presumed rights of Jews to such a homeland in southern Syria.

This principle further asserts the
permanence of national sovereignty in the face of the temporary political
arrangements and separate states that arose in Syria under the influence of
foreign colonial powers and separatist movements. It affirms the primacy of the
integrity of the nation and its homeland over the temporary political forms that
may arise during periods of national disintegration and foreign occupation.
Furthermore, by relating the sovereignty over the homeland to the existence of
the nation, Saadeh was setting the legal basis for this sovereignty in a
national envergure. Since sovereignty over the homeland is national, no
individuals, groups or governments within Syria have the right to forfeit or to
allow the permanent loss of sovereignty over any part of the Syrian homeland.
The concept of 'land for peace' is completely unacceptable in this reference
frame. Based on this we understand Saadeh's objections to the surrender of the
Alexandretta district of northern Syria to the Turks before the Second World War
and the continuing rejection by the Party of any settlements in southern Syria
(Palestine) short of the restitution of Syrian sovereignty over the entire
Syrian Homeland".

A distinctive aspect of this
principle is the necessary interconnection of its two clauses. A requisite that
Syria the homeland belong to the Syrians is that the latter form a complete
nation. This interdependence between the nation and the homeland is a primary
axiom of Syrian Social Nationalism. The integrity of the Syrian nation is the
safeguard of the integrity of the Syrian homeland and vice versa. Thus all
attempts leading to a loss of Syrian national integrity threaten the loss of
homeland. Saadeh often stressed that national disintegration was a main reason
for the loss of Alexandretta and Antioch in the north, and Palestine in the
south-west. Separatism is thus a danger to the integrity of the homeland.
Conversely, the Syrian nation can not prosper and be revived when valuable
portions of the homeland are taken away. The integrity of the homeland is vital
to the survival and prosperity of the nation.

In its apparent simple structure,
this principle is the most valuable guide to the understanding of Syrian Social
Nationalism and to the elucidation of the plan for national struggle. It is a
call to the constituency of the Party to fight separatism, to resist factional
tendencies, to reject colonialism, and to re-establish unlimited Syrian
possession of the entire homeland. Based on this principle, the SSNP does not
recognize the right of Zionists to establish a belligerent religious state in
the southern part of Syria (Palestine) with clear intentions of engulfing larger
sections of the Syrian homeland. Furthermore, the SSNP does not abide by any
international agreements that would deprive the Syrians of their national
integrity or the integrity of their homeland. Finally, the independence of Syria
in deciding its national interests and the course of its life in its homeland is
an immutable right that the SSNP does not allow to be jeopardized or abrogated.

The Syrian cause is an integral national
cause completely distinct from any other cause.

This principle signifies that all the legal and
political questions that relate to any portion of Syrian territory, or to any
Syrian group, are part of one indivisible cause distinct from, and unmixed with,
any other external matter which may nullify the conception of the unity of
Syrian interests and of the Syrian will. This principle follows from and is
complementary to the first principle. Since Syria is for the Syrians and the
Syrians are a complete nation endowed with the right to sovereignty, it follows
that this nation's cause, that is its life and destiny, belongs to her alone and
is independent from any other cause that involves interests other than those of
the Syrian people.

This principle reserves to the Syrians alone the
right to expound their own cause and to be their sole representatives, determine
their own interests and shape their own destiny.

From the spiritual point of view, this principle
entails that the will of the Syrian nation, which represents its highest
interests, is a general will and that the lofty ideals that the Syrians seek to
realize emanate from their own character, temperament and talents. The Syrian
nation can not tolerate the disintegration of these ideals, or its dissociation
from them or their mingling with other aims in which they may be forfeited.
These ideals are Freedom, Duty, Discipline, and Strength, abounding with Truth,
Good and Beauty in the most sublime form to which the Syrian spirit can rise and
which the Syrians must attain through their own endeavors, since no one else but
themselves can represent or realize those ideals for them.

In accordance with this principle, the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party declares that it does not recognize the right of any
non-Syrian person or organization to speak on behalf of Syria and its interests
either in internal or international matters. The Party does not recognize the
right of anybody to make the interests of Syria contingent on the interests of
other nations. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party does not recognize the right
of any non-Syrian person or organization to thrust its own ideals upon the
Syrian nation in substitution for its own.

This principle details the
national reference frame expounded in the first principle. While reasserting the
national character of territorial sovereignty, it relates all essential elements
of the life and destiny of the nation to a national decision framework. The
cause for this principle is the long held attitude rampant among Syrians before
the advent of the SSNP, that the destiny of Syria is inextricably linked to the
destiny and will of the foreign colonial power in control. While under Ottoman
rule, many Syrian thinkers thought of the destiny of Syria as part of the
Ottoman empire and fought for Ottoman nationalism. Even the early resistance to
Jewish settlements in southern Syria was formulated in the context of loyalty to
the Ottoman state. Subsequently, the separatist Christian leaders in Lebanon
sought to link the destiny of central western Syria (Lebanon) to France. More
recently, the continuous conflict on Syrian land between Syrians and Zionists is
interpreted as a manifestation of the struggle between the United States and the
Soviet Union for Near Eastern supremacy. By proclaiming the integral and
independent framework for the Syrian national cause, Saadeh was establishing the
guiding principle for the struggle of the Party: the SSNP does not view the life
and destiny of Syria as related to any non-Syrian issues and thus the pursuit of
the interests of Syria by the Party is guided solely by those principles
independent of extraneous causes or struggles.

This principle also establishes
the Unitarian direction in tackling the issues of the life and destiny of the
nation. Thus the occupation of southern Syria by Zionists is not a 'Palestinian
issue' or a separate 'Palestinian cause', but part of the Syrian cause. By
establishing the wider appurtenance of the Palestinian issue, Saadeh commits the
entire Syrian nation to the struggle for the return of Palestine to full Syrian
sovereignty. It is clear that abandonment of this principle has been largely
responsible for the defeat of the efforts of Palestinians in keeping and
recuperating southern Syria. It is only with a unified Syrian effort that
southern Syria can be liberated.

An additional tangible consequence
of this principle is the realization that Zionist colonialism is a threat to the
entire of Syria as has become clearly obvious in the events of recent history.
The national framework has allowed Saadeh to become cognizant of the
ramifications of Zionist settlements very early in this century and to voice his
warning starting in 1925 of the dangers of these settlements (10). The
assumption by the entire Syrian nation of the responsibility for issues
affecting some of its regions assures vigilance in all national matters. The
exemplification of this principle lies in the thousands of SSNP members whose
struggle, sacrifices and martyrdom has transcended regional affiliations.

The emphasis on the national
framework for the Syrian cause and its integral character establishes a
Unitarian streak in the struggle. It is a guardian against regionalism,
sectarianism and individualism in attending to issues related to the life and
destiny of the nation. This extends also to the issue of representation. This
principle implies that regional representatives can not claim absolute right of
representation for their regions in a manner to exclude the rights of the nation
as a whole to any decisions pertaining to that region or its inhabitants. Thus
the SSNP does not accept that regional representatives are the 'sole legal
representatives of the people' as is common in the parlance of various regional
political groups. According to this principle, the regions of Syria are so
integrally related in one unity that no regional decision with major envergure
can be made in isolation from the rest of the nation. Thus it is not the right
of the representatives of regional groups to forfeit parts of the homeland,
albeit the parts of that region. Any proclamation of the acceptance by
Palestinian groups of the right of Israel to exist and the forfeiting of
Palestine is considered by the SSNP as treason to the cause of the nation and
the homeland (1). As it relates to non-Syrians interceding on behalf of Syria,
the SSNP does not recognize the right of an Egyptian president to represent
Syrian interests and to come to agreement in any forum with anybody over vital
issues of Syrian appurtenance. Thus agreements relating to the West Bank by an
Egyptian president and a US president in Camp David are considered void by the
Party on principle.

The Syrian cause is the cause of the Syrian nation and the Syrian
homeland.

This principle unequivocally defines the Syrian
cause and emphasizes the indissoluble bond between the nation and its territory.Nations arise in distinct territories that sustain
their lives and national character. The concept of the unity of the nation and
its homeland embodied in this principle enables us to understand the nation as a
social reality and frees the concept of nationhood from such historical, racial
or religious misconceptions as are contrary to the nature of the nation and its
vital interest.

The organic correlation between the nation and
its homeland is the only principle whereby the unity of life can be achieved. It
is within a national territory that the unity of national life and participation
in its activities, interests and aims are attained. The national territory is
vital for the development of the social character of the nation and forms the
basis of its life.

A dominant characteristic of the
basic principles is Saadeh's insistence on clarity in defining the issues of
Syrian nationalism. This is exemplified by the sequential order of development
of the basic principles. They evolve one from the other in a complementary
fashion amplifying the breadth of the national cause while detailing its
elements. The third principle carries the issue of the national cause into its
elements: it is the cause of the Syrian nation and the Syrian homeland. This
amplification is important for two main reasons: first, it emphasizes a major
precept of Social Nationalism mentioned earlier about the indissoluble link of
the nation and its homeland. Second, this principle defines the framework of
national struggle. The emphasis is on concrete causes directly related to
primordial issues. The SSNP does not struggle for independence in an undefined
sense, but for the independence of the Syrian nation in its homeland, i.e. its
political, economic, cultural, military and strategic independence in its
completely liberated homeland (16). This divergence from the stream of
generalities that imbues Near Eastern political movements is a conscious choice
inculcated by Saadeh to all his disciples. This principle also widens the
envergure of national struggle. Since the cause is that of the nation, its life
and destiny, then all the elements of its life need to be addressed.

The doctrine of Social Nationalism
is the first in the Near East to base the concept of nation on the realities of
human societal development. The details particular to the Syrian nation will be
illustrated in subsequent principles. In general, the doctrine states that
nations formed because the geographical environment coupled with
historical-economic and sociological events led to the formations of distinct
human societies with distinct life cycles, character and history. This view
contrasts with other concepts of nationhood prevalent in the Near East that
relate the existence of nations to religious bonds, race purity, or secondary
aspects of human society such as language and common historical periods.

The Syrian nation is the product of the ethnic unity of the Syrian
people which developed throughout history.

This principle defines what constitutes the
nation mentioned in previous articles. lt reveals the concrete actuality of the
nation which is the final outcome of the long history of all the people that
have settled in Syria, inhabited it, interacted

with each other and finally became fused in one
people. This process started with the people of the Neolithic age who preceded
the Canaanites and Chaldeans in settling this land, and continued through to the
Akkadians, the Canaanites, the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Arameans, Amorites, and
Hittites. Thus the principle of Syrian nationhood is not based on race or blood,
but rather on the natural social unity derived from homogeneous intermixing.
Through this principle the interests, the aims and the ideals of the Syrian
nation are unified and the national cause is guarded against disharmony,
disintegration and strife that result from primitive loyalties to blood ties.

The alleged racial purity of any nation is a
groundless myth. It is found only in savage groups, and even there it is rare.
The Syrian nation consists of a mixture of Canaanites, Akkadians, Chaldeans,
Assyrians, Arameans, Hiffites, and Metanni as the French nation is a mixture of
Gauls, Ligurians, Franks, etc... and the Italian nation of Romans, Latins,
Etruscans, etc... the same being true of every other nation.

The Syrian nation denotes this society which
possesses organic unity. Though of mixed origins, this society has come to
constitute a single society living in a distinguished environment known
historically as Syria or the Fertile Crescent. The common stocks, Canaanites,
Chaldeans, Arameans, Assyrians, Amorites, Hiffites, Metanni and Akkadians
etc...whose blending is an indisputable historical fact constitute the
ethnic-historical-cultural basis of Syria's unity whereas the Syrian Fertile
Crescent constitutes the geographic-economic-strategic basis of this unity.

This ethnic and geographical reality has been
marred by successive historic events which destroyed documentation and led to
the substitution of various foreign accounts for authentic facts and distorted
through various interpretations of our national history. A large number of
historians have confined their definition of SYRIA to Byzantine or late Hellenic
'Syria', whose boundaries extended from the Taurus range and the Euphrates to
the Suez thus excluding the Assyrians and Chaldeans from Syrian History. Other
historians have further confined this definition to the region between Cilicia
and Palestine, thus leaving out Palestine. All these historians were aliens who
were unable to grasp the reality of the Syrian nation and its environment and
the process of its development. Moreover, most of the Syrian historians who
derived their information from foreign sources without adequate criticism, have
followed their lead-Thus the truth was falsified and our genuine cause was lost.

The history of the ancient Syrian states (Akkadian,
Chaldean, Assyrian, Hittite, Canaanite, Aramean, Amorite) point to one and the
same trend: the political, economic, and social unity of the Syrian Fertile
Crescent-This fact should enable us to view the Assyrian and Chaldean wars,
aimed at dominating the whole of Syria, in a new light. These were internal
wars, a struggle for supremacy among the powerful groups and dynasties within
the nation which was still in the making and which later attained its maturity.

This principle is not in the least incompatible
with the fact that Syria is one of the nations of the Arab World, nor is this
latter fact at variance with the statement that Syria is a complete nation with
sovereign rights over its territory and consequently with a distinct and
independent national cause. It is the overlooking of this principle that has
given the religious sects in Syria the means of disuniting the country into a
Mohammedan-Arab faction on the one hand and a Christian-Phoenician one, on the
other, so that the unity of the nation is thereby destroyed and its energies
dissipated.

This principle would redeem Syria from the blood
bigotries which are apt to cause the neglect of national interests. For those
Syrians who believe or feel that they are of Aramaic extraction would no longer
be actuated to fan Aramaic blood loyalty , so long as the principle of Social
Nationalist unity and the equality of civic, political and social rights and
duties are guaranteed, and no ethnic or racial discrimination in Syria is made.
Similarly, those Syrians who claim to descend from a Phoenician (Canaanite),
Arab, or Crusader stock, would no longer have allegiance but to their Syrian
community. Thus would genuine national consciousness arise. The unity of the
Syrian nation arose from the elements which have formed in the course of history
the Syrian people and the mental and spiritual traits of the Syrian nation.

This principle cannot be said to imply that Jews
are a part of the Syrian nation and equal in rights and duties to the Syrians.
Such an interpretation is incompatible with this principle which excludes the
integration of elements with alien and exclusive racial loyalties in the Syrian
nation. Such elements cannot fit into any homogeneous nation.

There are large settlements of immigrants in
Syria, such as the Armenians, Kurds and Circassians, whose assimilation is
possible given sufficient time. These elements may dissolve in the nation and
lose their special loyalties. But there is one large settlement which can not in
any respect be reconciled to the principle of Syrian nationalism, and that is
the Jewish settlement. IT is a dangerous settlement which can never be
assimilated because it consists of a people that, although it has mixed with
many other peoples, has remained a heterogeneous mixture, not a nation, with
strange stagnant beliefs and aims of its own, essentially incompatible with
Syrian rights and sovereignty ideals. It is the duty of the Syrian Social
Nationalists to repulse the immigration of this people with all their might.

The definition of the Syrian
nation expounded in this principle is clearly different from the various
definitions of 'Syria' common in historical and literary works in Syria and
abroad. While historical research unceasingly uncovers evidence of Unitarian
tendencies in the civilization of the "Near East", scholars have frequently
confined their definition of Syria to the western part of the Fertile Crescent.
Saadeh has often stated that the limitations of terminology should not detract
from an understanding of the nature of the one nation that has been shaped in
the confines of the Fertile Crescent. Indeed, he has suggested that if the
'name' has limitation, the name can be altered to reflect the unity of the
nation. Indeed, he suggested that 'Souraqia', an amalgamation of the Arabic
forms of Syria and Iraq, could be used to reflect the unity of the western and
eastern components of the Fertile Crescent, although he continued to favor Syria
because of its Syrian origin (possibly a derivation from Assyrian, see below)
over Iraq which is of Persian derivation. Furthermore, it should be remembered
that before the formation of the modern state of Iraq in the wake of the First
World War, the term referred to southern Mesopotamia and did not include the
district of Mosul.

Several theories have been
advanced to explain the origin of the name Syria. It is, in form, a Greek name (Suria)
first used by the Greek historian Herodotus (20). Herodotus applies the name
Syrians to the Phoenicians, Palestinians, and interestingly the Cappadocians. He
does not use distinction between Syrian and Assyrian consistently and states:
'These people used to be called Syrians by the Greeks, Assyrians being the name
for them elsewhere'. The various theories on the etymology of 'Syria' can be
categorized as follows:

- from 'Assyria' by elimination of
the prefix. This is a popular theory and has strong elements to support it
considering that the Assyrian empire included at various times the entire
western part of the Crescent. It is suggested by the statement of Herodotus
mentioned above. Further evidence comes from the Syrian writer Lucian who,
writing in Greek, referred to himself interchangeably as 'Syrian' and
'Assyrian'.

-from
the Semitic name of the city of Tyre, 'Sur'. The Greeks, however, referred to
the city as 'Tur' and it is difficult to see how they would derive the name of
the land with an 's'. Chroniclers of the crusades have stated that the
inhabitants of the region gave this explanation for the etymology of the name of
the land. The reliability and relevance of this late testimony, however, are
difficult to ascertain.

-from
the Ugaritic and biblical 'Siryon', a name for Mt. Hermon. The Greeks, however,
would have maintained the 'i' and had no need to substitute a 'u' as in "Suria'.

-from
the Egyptian 'Hrw' (Hurri) used to refer to western Syria during the Eighteenth
to the Twenty-First Dynasties. This assumes a transformation of the 'H' to the
Coptic -S-, apparently a development with many precedents. Herodotus could
easily have utilized the term the Egyptians used to refer to their northeastern
neighbors.

The Unitarian stirring in the
confines of the Fertile Crescent became manifest in the development of economic
ties, cultural interactions, and population mixing all antecedent to the
earliest political forms of unity. The unity of the life cycle within the
Fertile Crescent has preceded the political unity of the first territorial
empire by the Akkadian rulers. The unity of life has persisted when political
unity was lacking. It should be highlighted that the recurring territorial
empires arising in Syria under the mantles of the various forming elements of
the Syrian nation, have contributed to the maintenance and promotion of the
unity of life. Thus the Babylonian empire of Hammurapi, the Assyrian empire, the
Neo-Babylonian state, the Seleucide rule etc... have given political and
administrative facilitatory forms to the unity of life prevalent within the
confines of the Syrian homeland.

Saadeh ascribed the failure of
historians in general to grasp the historical unity within the confines of the
Fertile Crescent to the influence of Greek and Roman historians. A similar
opinion has been independently advanced recently by the British historians
Amelie Kuhn and Susan Sherwin-White: 'Traditional approaches to the study of the
Hellenistic East after Alexander have been mainly hellenocentric and have
selected as of prime importance the establishment and spread of Greek culture.
This is a serious lack which stems from the overriding significance attached to
the classical tradition in which most scholars of the ancient world have been
educated. One of the results of this is that where there is no clear Greek
evidence a political, social and cultural vacuum is assumed. Another distorting
factor has been the preoccupation of Roman historians who have tended (not
unnaturally) to concentrate almost exclusively on those regions of the Seleucide
empire which by the first century BC had become part of the Roman empire. This
approach has led them to...[ignore] the central importance of the vast
territories controlled by the Seleucid east of the Euphrates'.

The question of limiting the term
'Syria' to the western part of the Fertile Crescent is examined by another
historian in the same collection, Fergus Millar: 'By 'Syria' I mean anywhere
west of the Euphrates and south of the Amanus mountains-essentially therefore
the area west of the Euphrates where Semitic languages were used ... This begs a
question about Asia Minor (and especially Cilicia), from which Aramaic documents
are known, and a far more important one about northern Mesopotamia and about
Babylonia; Should we not, that is, see the various Aramaic-speaking areas of the
Fertile Crescent as representing a single culture, or at any rate closely
connected cultures, and therefore not attempt to study the one area without the
others?'.

The Syrian homeland is that geographic environment in which the Syrian nation
evolved. It has distinct natural boundaries and extends from the Taurus range in
the northwest and the Zagros mountains in the northeast to the Suez canal and
the Red Sea in the south and includes the Sinai peninsula and the gulf of Aqaba,
and from the Syrian sea in the west, including the island of Cyprus, to the arch
of the Arabian desert and the Persian gulf in the east. (This region is also
known as the Syrian Fertile Crescent).

These are the natural boundaries of the Syrian
homeland which has housed the elements of the Syrian nation and provided them
with the basis of their lives and the opportunity of contact and collision, then
mixture and fusion which resulted in the formation of the distinct character of
the Syrian nation. The Chaldeans and Assyrians were alive to the internal unity
and integrity of this country and sought to unify it politically, interested as
they were in the idea of the territorial state. Similarly, all the other people
who inhabited this region were conscious of the internal unity of the country
and sought to build up confederations between decentralized governments to avoid
internal dissension and for protection from external incursions.

The secret of Syria's persistence as a distinct
nation despite the numerous invasions to which it succumbed, lies in the
geographic unity of its homeland. It was this geographic unity that ensured the
political unity of this country even in environment in which the Syrian nation
evolved. It has distinct natural boundaries and extends from the Taurus range in
the northwest and the Zagros mountains in the northeast to the Suez canal and
the Red Sea in the south and includes the Sinai peninsula and the gulf of Aqaba,
and from the Syrian sea in the west, including the island of Cyprus, to the arch
of the Arabian desert and the Persian gulf in the east. (This region is also
known as the Syrian Fertile Crescent).

These are the natural boundaries of the Syrian
homeland which has housed the elements of the Syrian nation and provided them
with the basis of their lives and the opportunity of contact and collision, then
mixture and fusion which resulted in the formation of the distinct character of
the Syrian nation. The Chaldeans and Assyrians were alive to the internal unity
and integrity of this country and sought to unify it politically, interested as
they were in the idea of the territorial state. Similarly, all the other people
who inhabited this region were conscious of the internal unity of the country
and sought to build up confederations between decentralized governments to avoid
internal dissension and for protection from external incursions.

The secret of Syria's persistence as a distinct
nation despite the numerous invasions to which it succumbed, lies in the
geographic unity of its homeland. It was this geographic unity that ensured the
political unity of this country even in ancient times when it was still divided
among the Canaanites, the Arameans, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Assyrians,
and the Chaldeans, a political unity which manifested itself in the formation of
alliances in the face of threats from Egyptians and other invasions. That unity
reached its culmination with the formation of a Seleucid Syrian state, which
grew into a powerful empire and dominated Asia Minor and extended as far as
India.

Syria's loss of sovereignty as a consequence of
the major foreign invasions resulted in its partition into arbitrary political
units. In the Perso-Byzantine period, the Byzantines extended their rule over
western Syria and applied the name Syria' to that part only, while the Persians
dominated the eastern part which they called -irah', later arabicized as Iraq.
Similarly, after the First World War the codominium of Great Britain and France
over Syria resulted in the partition of the country according to their political
aims and interests and gave rise to the present political designations:
Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Cilicia and Iraq. Natural Syria consists of
all those regions which constitute one geographic-economic-strategic unit. The
Syrian Social Nationalist cause will not be fulfilled unless the unity of Syria
is achieved.

The partitioning of Syria between the Byzantines
and the Persians into Eastern and Western Syria and the creation of barriers
between them, retarded considerably, and for a long period, the national growth
and the development of the social and economic life cycle of the country. This
division resulted also in distorting the truth about the boundaries of Syria.
Additional factors contributing to this distortion were: the incursion of the
desert upon the lower arch of the Fertile Crescent, the decrease in population,
the recession of urban areas (by virtue of constant wars and invasions), and
deforestation, all of which made vast areas of the country desolate. The lack of
reliable studies pertaining to the cause of this ever increasing drought, which
has caused deepening of the arch, has contributed to the view that the expansion
of the desert has been a permanent phenomenon. In my studies,I have demonstrated
the indisputable unity of the country and examined the arbitrary grounds for its
present condition and its partitioning, and established that all the territory
to which the term Mesopotamia refers, as far as the Zagros mountains that form
the natural boundary separating Eastern Syria from Iran, falls within Syria-

The Syrian homeland is an essential factor in
Syrian nationalism. Every Syrian Social Nationalist must be conversant with the
boundaries of his beautiful country and keep its picture before his mind. In
order to safeguard his right and the rights of his descendants in this wonderful
country, he should grasp well the unity of his nation, the community of its
rights, and the indivisible unity of its country.

I have indicated in Book One of The Genesis of
Nations that the dynamism and vitality of a nation may lead to alteration of its
natural boundaries. A strong and ever-growing nation will transcend its
frontiers and expand beyond them, whereas a weak and weathering nation will
shrink within those frontiers. After the decline and fall of the great Syrian
states, the whole Syrian nation was reduced to impotence and recession. It lost
the Sinai peninsula to Egypt and Cilicia to Turkey, and shrank within its own
natural boundaries, and was finally broken up by the powers which invaded and
occupied its territory in whole or in part.

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party symbolizes
the resurgence of the Syrian nation, which is bent on recovering its power and
vitality and redeeming its dismembered parts.

The Syrian homeland has played a
major role in the shaping of the Syrian nation and its character. The internal
elements of the Syrian environment provide means of interaction between the
various regions. Indeed, if one considers the waterways of Syria, its rivers and
streams, one can view the contribution of the physical environment to the
formation of one society. Considering that the major part of the history of any
human society revolved until recently predominantly around agriculture,
the continuity of agricultural space would inevitably invite lines of
interaction between human elements within the environment. The courses of the
great Syrian rivers, the

Euphrates and the Tigris, are
natural couriers of life between western and eastern Syria, and between the
northern and southern regions of eastern Syria. The Orontes links the plains of
central and northern regions of western Syria while the Litani and Jordan rivers
link the central and southern parts. The Mediterranean littoral spreads without
interruption over fertile coastal lands from the gulf of Alexandretta to the
early shores of the Sinai peninsula.

These internal elements favoring
unity of life are paralleled by natural borders that define, albeit relatively,
the confines of the society forming herein. The borders of the Syrian Fertile
Crescent have limited the extension of continuous life and thus shaped the
formation of the nation. These borders, however, were never exclusive. They were
in various historical periods overrun in both directions. Syrian commercial
colonies from the Assyrian periods have been identified in Anatolia and from the
Phoenician periods over much of the Mediterranean. The military might of Assyria
extended beyond the Zagros and Taurus mountains to the north and east, and over
the Sinai into Egypt. Conversely, the Egyptians often coveted the Syrian coast
and the intrusions of the Pharaonic state into western Syria were recurrent. The
Gutians, the Kassites, and the Persians crossed the eastern borders when the
military preparedness of eastern Syrian states faltered. The Hiftites, the
Greeks, the Romans and the Ottomans crossed the northern borders. Despite those
recurrent invasions, the life cycle of Syria was never completely linked to that
of invading societies and the degree of interaction was limited by the lack of
territorial continuity of human settlement and life.

In delineating the western borders
of Syria, Saadeh mentions the "Syrian sea". This terminology is not peculiar to
the literature of the SSNP, but has been utilized by European geographers and
cartographers. Indeed, a cursory perusal of ancient maps reveals the term to
have been used as early as the second century AD by Claudius Ptolemy (Mare
Siriacum)-. In the same map, Ptolemy utilizes the term Syria for the western
part of the Fertile Crescent in accordance with Roman administrative division,
whereas the eastern part is divided into the two regions of Mesopotamia and
Babylonia. The practice was continued in Renaissance and sixteenth century maps
and Jacob Ziegler (1470-1549) uses the term 'Mare Syriacum' in a map of the Holy
Land. The term was again used by Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594), the inventor of
map projection still used today, as a region of the Mediterranean along the
coast of the Holy Land and he extends Coele Syria southward to the entire
eastern bank of the Jordan. The German cartographer Tilleman Stella (1525-1589)
calls 'Mare Syrium Phoenicium' the coast off Syrophoenicia (the coastal area
lining the Lebanon mountain chain), a practice followed by the Dutch Abraham
Ortelius (1527-1598) the publisher of the first world atlas. In a map of the
battle of Lepanto between the Ottoman and Venetian fleets in 1571 off the coast
of Greece, the Italian Antonio Lafreri (1512-1577) calls the sea between Cyprus
and the Syrian coast 'Pelagus Sirum-Mare di Siria'. The practice was continued
by British, Dutch, German and French cartographers until the middle of the 18 th
century when one observes the use of ' Grande Mer' and 'La Mer du Levant'
replacing Syrian sea.

It is instructive to examine one
additional aspect of Saadeh's description of the Syrian homeland, namely his
interpretation of the reasons for the distortion of the truth of the eastern
expansion of the Syrian homeland to include Mesopotamia. Saadeh hints at the
theory of progressive desiccation that has been entertained by some scholars. He
does give greater emphasis, however, to the economic consequences of political
and social changes. Modern scholarship has confirmed his interpretation, and
examples of soil depletion and decline of agriculture as a sequel of political
changes abound.

On this fundamental principle are based some of
the reform principles to be expounded later, such as the separation of church
and state and the elimination of social barriers between the various sects and
creeds. This principle is the basis of genuine national unity, the mark of
national consciousness, and the guarantee of the life and endurance of the
Syrian character. One Nation-One Society- The unity of society is the basis of
the community of interests and consequently the basis of the community of life.
The absence of social unity entails the absence of common interests, and no
resort to temporary expediency can make up for this loss- Through social unity,
the conflict of loyalties and negative attitudes will disappear to be replaced
by a single healthy national loyalty ensuring the revival of the nation.
Similarly, all religious bigotry and their nefarious consequences will cease and
in their stead national collaboration and toleration will prevail. Moreover,
economic cooperation and a sense of national concord and unity will be fulfilled
and pretexts for foreign intervention will be abolished.

Real independence and real sovereignty will not
be fulfilled and will not endure unless they rest upon this genuine social unity
which is the only sound basis for a national state and Social Nationalist civil
legislation. This unity forms the basis for citizenship and the guarantee of the
equality of rights for all citizens.

This principle establishes the
legal and legislative homogeneity of the society as a basis for a sound
nationalist state. While the SSNP recognizes that in Syria today exist many
religious and ethnic distinctions distributed over much of the Syrian homeland,
these distinctions should not be brought into the realm of the legislation of
the Syrian state. Furthermore, national loyalty should surpass and supersede
religious and ethnic loyalties and affiliations. Generalized and absolute
equality of rights is a basic principle of Social Nationalism.

On a social level, Syria is
currently divided along religious and ethnic lines. These divisions are remnants
of periods of decadence in Syrian history. Religious and ethnic persecutions by
sectarian rules whether indigenous to Syria or foreign, have impaired the
natural tendency of the Syrian society towards a harmonious variety without
group isolation. Persecution by other Christian sects led the Maronites to leave
northern Syria and take refuge in the Lebanese mountains (30). This tendency to
seek a geographical sanctuary was fostered by continuation of oppression by
later rulers. A similar situation can be detailed for the Druze, the Assyrians
and the Kurds. Finally, the political associations of religious history continue
to separate the Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in Syria.

The elimination of the negative
and divisionist aspects of the religious and ethnic variety in Syria is the aim
of the sixth basic principle.

The Syrian Social Nationalist movement derives its inspiration from
the talents of the Syrian nation and its cultural political national history.

This principle asserts the spiritual independence
of the nation in which its national character, qualities, and aims are grounded.
The Party believes that no Syrian revival can be effected save through the
agency of the inborn and independent Syrian character. Indeed, one of the major
factors in the absence of Syrian national consciousness or its weakness is the
overlooking of the genuine character of the Syrian nation as manifested in the
intellectual and practical contributions of its people and their cultural
achievements, such as the enactment of the first civilized code of law and the
invention of the alphabet, the greatest cultural intellectual revolution in
history; let alone the material-spiritual effects of Syrian colonization and
culture and the civilizing influence Syria exercised over the whole of the
Mediterranean, and the immortal achievements of such great Syrians as Zeno, Bar
Salibi, St. John Chrysostom, Ephraim, Al-Maari, Deek-el-Jin of Emessa, al-Kawakibi,
Gibran, and other great figures of ancient and modern times-To this list may be
added the names of Syria's great generals from Sargon the Great to Esserhaddon,
Sennecharib,Nebuchadnasser,Assurbanipal, and Tigiat-pilasser; from Hanno the
great to Hannibal (the greatest military genius of all times) and Yusuf Azmeh,
the hero of Meyselun.

We derive our ideals from our own character and
we declare that in the Syrian character are latent all science, philosophy and
art in the world.

Unless the Syrian ethos is strengthened, and unless it is freed from dominating
alien influences, the elements of real sovereignty will be wanting and Syria
will fall short of its lofty ideals.

The history of the Syrian nation
is viewed by Saadeh in a multidimensional fashion. This history is at once the
record of the genesis of the Syrian nation, a clue to the character and
abilities of the nation, and an incentive to the present revival of Syria. The
doctrine of Syrian Social Nationalism is derived from an intense and detailed
analytical study of the history of Syria by Saadeh that did not end with the
founding of the Party, but continued until his martyrdom. Saadeh aimed to show
the Syrians that the realities of their history are reasons for pride,
self-respect and eagerness to restore Syria to its creative role in human
civilization. In his scientific, philosophical and ideological writings, Saadeh
constantly illustrated doctrinal issues with examples from Syria's historical
record. What is even more crucial is his directives to Party intellectuals to
seek their inspiration in the events of this history, in Syrian mythology and
poetical writings.

In a sense, Saadeh is responsible
for the modern wave of intellectuals in Syria whose poetry, novels and theater
are imbued with topics and influences from Syria's cultural heritage.

Syria's history was more than a
source of literary material, it is also a guide to the character of the Syrian
nation and its view of itself, life and the universe. Saadeh elucidates in his
book 'Intellectual Struggle in Syrian Literature' how the SSNP's philosophy of
life is consistent with the trend that Syrian civilization has exemplified
throughout time.

The implication of this principle
on national struggle is clear. A nation needs to be self-consistent, its
civilization continuous and its character preserved. A nation needs to be
intellectually independent to contribute in a creative way to human development.

It is instructive to examine
briefly the list of Syrians mentioned by Saadeh as illustrative of the
contributions of Syria to human civilization. The first mentioned was Zeno of
Citium (founder of the Stoic school in philosophy). This is symbolic of the
admiration Saadeh had for the philosophical school of stoicism, and also the
fact that a major school of 'Western' philosophy is basically a Syrian school.
Bar Salibi, St John Chrysostom, and Ephraim are prominent Fathers of the
Christian church. Of note is that the two Fathers that represent the Aramaic
element in the Syrian Church (Bar Salibi and Ephraim) flank the Father that
represents the Hellenistic element (John Chrysostom). It should be remembered
that Syrian thought in the Seleucide, Roman and early Byzantine periods found
its expression in a polylinguistic form: Greek and Aramaic (Syriac). By choosing
these prominent Syrians, Saadeh is illustrating the contributions of Syria to
Christian thought. Next, Saadeh lists two poets of differing standing: Al-Maari,
Deek-el-Jin of Emessa. Considering the wealth of poets in Syria, the choice is
intriguing yet instructive. Abu Al-Ala' Al-Maari was a philosopher poet and
likely the only Arabic writing poet to have had any philosophical and
intellectual depth to his poetry. The poetry of Deek-ei-Jin of Emessa is sincere
and esthetically refined. Saadeh was thus highlighting aspects of literary
contributions that are of greater import that the popular 'classical' Arabic
poets. al-Kawakibi (1849-1902 AD) and Gibran (1883-1931 AD) are more modern
writers notable for their involvement in social and political aspects of Syrian
life and their adherence to principles of Syrian revival and renaissance. Four
of the military leaders that Saadeh lists are direct descendants (Sargon 722-704
B.C., Sennecharib 704-681 B.C., Esserhaddon 680-669 B.C., Assurbanipal 669-627
B.C.) and represent the rulers of the Assyrian state at its best. It is a period
of Syrian history notable for the crowning of the social, economic and cultural
unity of Syria with political administrative unity (38). Nebuchadnasser (605-562
B.C.) and Tiglat-pilasser Ill (745-727 B.C.) are ruler that established major
expansion and centralization in the government of Syria. There are several Hanno-named
Carthaginian leaders among them is the famous Hanno that was the first to sail
around the western shores of Africa. It is easy to understand the choice of
Hannibal to be included in this roster. Of equal significance is Yusuf Azmeh who
as the defense minister of the Syrian state that arose in Damascus at the end of
the First World War led the only organized armed resistance to French colonial
forces in the battle of Meysalun.

It is clear that the choice of
these notable Syrians is to illustrate aspects of Syrian history , in all the
diverse ways in which a civilization can express itself, that are noteworthy of
study and inspiration for modern Syrians.

This is the most important principle in national
activity for, in the first place, it provides the clue to the sincerity and
integrity of national militants, and in the second place it directs their
energies towards the interest of the Syrian nation and its welfare. It is the
criterion by which all national movements and actions are judged. Through this
criterion, the SSNP excels all other political factions in Syria, to say nothing
of its obvious excellence in other respects. The SSNP aims at serving the
concrete interests of the Syrians and at meeting their common needs and aims.
There is no longer a need to seek in vain the definition of national endeavor in
the domain of the abstract and the impracticable. This principle centers all
other principles round the interest of the nation so that Syrians are no longer
misled by the teachings of those who would serve contrary interests.

The life of the nation is a concrete reality and
so are its interests. The success of the SSNP in bringing about this amazing
national revival in our country is due, in great measure, to the fact that the
Party seeks to serve the genuine interests of the Syrian nation and assert its
willto life.

Syria embodies our social character, faculties,
ideals, our outlook on life, art and the universe. It is the symbol of our
honor, dignity and destiny. That is why our loyalty to Syria must transcend all
personal interests and considerations.

This is the central operational
principle that guides the struggle and militancy of the SSNP for the
establishment of the new order and renaissance in Syria. It does not imply only
complete devotion to the cause of the nation and homeland, but puts the onus of
extreme care on the shoulders of the SSNP constituency. This principle links
extreme devotion with the responsibility of seeking the best for the Syrian
nation. This link needs to be understood on moral and practical levels. The
romanticism of good-intended deeds is unacceptable in national struggle because
the cause is too great to allow for a less than intensely prepared approach.
While laudable, devotion to the cause of the nation is insufficient. A serious
and responsible preparation is necessary to safeguard the interests of Syria.
Thus to serve the genuine interests of the Syrian nation, the SSN P does not
offer only a devoted constituency, but also a well thought out doctrine and
plan. This principle closes the series of basic principles for two important
reasons. Both reasons reflect the indissoluble unity of these principles. The
first reason is that the doctrine and plan embodied in the preceding principles
find their operational vehicle in this principle. The second reason is that this
principle is not useful to the nation separated from the preceding principles.
The organic unity of the basic principles distinguishes the SSNP from other
political groups. The SSNP does not contend that it is the only party devoted to
the Syrian nation, but it asserts that the vehicle of this devotion is what
really affects the destiny of Syria.

The greatest obstacle to our national unity and
our national progress has been the association between our religious and
political institutions and the pretension of ecclesiastical bodies to political
power and their actual possession of such power in varying degrees. Theocracy,
or the religious state is incompatible with the concept of nationhood because it
stands for the domination of the whole community of believers by an
ecclesiastical authority. Religion recognizes no national interests because it
is concerned with a community of believers dominated by a central religious
authority. The concept of a religio-political bond in lieu of the political is
contrary to nationalism in general and to Syrian Social Nationalism in
particular. The adherence of Syrian Christians to such a concept would set them
apart from other religious groups within the nation and would expose their
interests to the danger of being submerged in the interests of other groups with
whom they happen to share a religious bond. Similarly, the adherence of Syrian
Moslems to the concept of a religious bond would bring their interests also to
possible conflict with those of their non-Muslim compatriots and would submerge
those interests in those of the greater religious community. The inevitable
outcome of the concept of a religious bond is the disintegration of the nation
and the decline of national life.

We cannot achieve national unity by making the
state a religious one because in such a state rights and interests would be
denominational in nature pertaining exclusively to the dominant religious group.
Where such rights and interests are those of a religious group, common national
rights and interests will not obtain. Without the community of interests and
rights there can be no unity of duties and no unified national will. On the
basis of this legal philosophy, the SSNP has succeeded in laying down the
foundations of national unity and in actually realizing it within its ranks.

This principle is based on several
historical and theoretical imperatives. The first imperative is to remediate
actual social problems in Syria as regards the divisiveness of religious sects
when they take political and legal forms. Saadeh will develop this aspect of the
reform principles in the two subsequent principles, but at this juncture he is
establishing the general framework. While sectarianism is particularly prominent
in the western part of Syria due to the concentration of denominational groups
in Lebanon, the problem is quite ubiquitous and many apparently non-religious
divisions have a strong element of religious associations to them such as the
questions of the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Kurdish communities in central Syria.
Similarly, sectarianism among Moslem Syrians is quite rampant.

The necessity of such a principle
for national revival can not be overstated. The tragedies perpetrated in Syria
by the religiously motivated or contrived policies continueto sap the
revival energies of the Syrian nation and retardits progress towards
becoming a viable modern polity.

The internecine massacres in
Lebanon, and the power struggles in Iraq and the Syrian Republic have clear
religious undercurrents. The recent resurgence of religious based and motivated
militant political and armed organizations illustrates the fragility of the
social order in Syria and the predisposition to greater calamities if
application of this principle and its ramifications detailed below is further
delayed.

Another imperative for the
promulgation of this principle is to vindicate national sovereignty that has to
reside in the entirety of the Syrian nation and not be limited to any
denominational group however majoritarian. Unity of society is a necessary
condition for safeguarding national sovereignty. Further, the unity of society
is jeopardized by legal inequality and the latter usually obtains when a
religious state emerges in multidenominational societies.

Debarring the clergy from interference in political and judicial
matters.

The rationale for setting forth this principle in
a separate article is that religious bodies attempt to acquire or retain civil
authority even where the separation of church and state has been conceded. This
principle puts an end to the indirect interference of ecclesiastical bodies in
civil and political matters. This principle defines precisely the meaning of the
separation of the church from the state for reform must not be confined to the
political sphere but must extend to the legal-judicial sphere as well.

In a country where judicial function is not
homogeneous owing to the diversity of religious sects, political rights and
sound political institutions will not be possible nor will general national
unity for the latter is conditional on the unity of laws. The Social Nationalist
state must have a uniform judiciary and a unified system of laws. Citizens must
all be equal before the one law of the state. There can be no unity of character
where the basis of life is in conflict with the unity of the nation.

There exists in Syria age-old barriers between
the various sects and denominations that are not of the essence of religion.
There are conflicting traditions derived from the structure of religious and
denominational institutions that have exerted an enormous influence on the
social and economic unity of the people, weakened it and delayed our national
revival. As long as these barriers remain, our call for freedom and independence
will remain futile.

Every nation that seeks a free and independent
life in which it can realize its ideals must possess real spiritual unity. Such
spiritual unity is not possible in a country in which each group lives in
isolation from other groups and has particular social and legal systems which
set it apart from other groups. This would result in diversity in character and
disharmony in aims and aspirations.

National unity win not be achieved unless the
causes for dissension are removed. The socio-legal barriers separating the sects
and denominations of the same nation constitute a major obstacle to the
realization of the unity of the nation.

Unity is something real and not fictitious, so
let us not surrender reality and cling to fiction. We must stand together before
the world as one united nation rather than a conglomeration of heterogeneous
elements of conflicting attitudes. The existence of the present social and legal
barriers which separate the various sects entails the persistence of obnoxious
religious bigotry. Those barriers must be demolished so that the unity of the
nation might become a reality and the Social Nationalist order, which will
restore the nation to health and energy, might be established.

The abolition of feudalism, the organization of national economy on
the basis of production and the protection of the rights of labour and the
interests of the nation and the state.

Although feudalism is not legally recognized in Syria, there exists in certain
parts of the country a number of economic and social feudal conditions that
threaten the economic and social welfare of the nation. The Syrian Social
Nationalist Party considers that it is of the utmost importance to put an end to
this state of affairs to safeguard national unity.

The
organization of the national economy on the basis of production is the only
means for the attainment of a sound balance between the distribution of labor
and the distribution of wealth. Every citizen should be productive in one way or
another. Moreover, production and producers must be classified in such a way to
assure coordination, participation and cooperation in the widest extent possible
and to regulate the just share of laborers in production and to insure their
right to work and to receive just compensation for their labor. This principle
will put an end to absolute individualism in Production because every form of
production in society in genuinely a collective or a cooperative one. Grave
injustices can be perpetrated against labor and laborers were individual
capitalists to be given absolute control. The public wealth of the nation must
be controlled in the national interest and under the superintendence of the
national state. Progress and strength of the national state can not be achieved
save with this policy.

The
aim of the Syrian Social NationalistParty is the achievement of a sound nationalunity which enables the Syrian nation to excel in
the struggle for existence. This unity can not be realized if either the
economic or social order is not sufficiently wholesome. Justice in the judicial,
social and economic spheres is an essential condition for the triumph of the
Syrian Social Nationalist Movement.

Collective production is a public not a private right. Capital which is the
guarantee of the continuity of production and its growth, and in so far as it
represents the resultant of production, is consequently, in principle a public
national possession. Individuals acting as trustees may dispose of it and
utilize it for further productivity. Active participation in the process of
production is the necessary condition for the enjoyment of public rights.

Critics of the SSNP, particularly
Marxists, have often raised the issue of lack of extensive development and
detail of the economic plan as a limitation of the doctrine of Social
Nationalism. It is actually the strength of the doctrine. Considering how
rapidly outdated and consequently injurious detailed economic plans become, it
is more consistent with the principle of serving Syria best to avoid limiting
the energy and creativeness of Syrians in theoretical economic formulations.
This does not mean that the SSNP and Saadeh have not delved into the details of
economic issues. Indeed, Saadeh has constantly addressed economic matters as
they arose and there is no period in the available written record where an
article dealing with economic issues is not extant. This is not surprising from
a thinker who was intensely involved in all the issues that affected the life of
the nation. While it is beyond the scope of the present essay to examine
Saadeh's approach to these different economic issues, it is to be remembered
that the principles were meant to define aspects and positions that Saadeh
considered essential and immutable. The approach to the details of the changing
world of economy needs to be principled, but unencumbered. It is for this reason
that this principle was formulated in its current format.

The primordial role of
productivity in the Social Nationalist economic view illustrates clearly
Saadeh's divergence from the utopian approaches that characterize many of the
political movements in the Near East. Equality in poverty is not a condition
that the SSNP accepts for Syrians. The economic approach should embody the view
of the SSNP for the future of Syria as a vibrant and viable polity. Equitable
prosperity can be achieved only if the productive forces of the Syrian nation
and the resources of its homeland are activated. The imperative for such a view
rests in what Saadeh has termed 'the will to life'. The survival and success of
the Syrian nation depend among other things on its economic strength and power.

It is important to note that
productivity is understood in a wide sense. It is agricultural, industrial, and
intellectual productivity. This broad concept of productivity is a guard against
the disasters frequently brought upon rising nations by an exclusive and a
stubborn attempt at industrialization at the expense of other components of the
economic life of the nation. While the SSNP recognizes the need for the Syrian
nation to develop industry, the latter is viewed as but one component of
economic growth and advancement. Saadeh has clarified in his book 'The Genesis
of Nations' that the industrial stage that societies have achieved is superior
to the agricultural stage, but remarks that industrial nations have achieved
superiority by their industry, agriculture and intellect.

The concept of basing an economic
system on productivity has been interpreted in the past, naively, to imply
regulation of wages according to work performance. While the latter formulation
is acceptable within the framework of safeguarding the rights of workers, it is
not the correct interpretation of the concept of productivity. It is likely a
formulation made to parallel the popular communist slogan 'To each according to
his need and from each according to his ability'. Saadeh's formulation was
rather concerned with an economic view for the society at large, not of the
issue of wage regulation. It is directed at the entire economic life of the
nation not at a regulatory component of a single aspect.

The safeguarding of the rights of
labor is not a call to unionism. SSNP members have been active in the union
movement in Syria since the inception of unions in the early thirties. The Party
has, at various stages in its history, supported the rights of workers when
presented in the context of union struggle. The limitations of unionism,
however, have also been considered. Unionism is usually based on a narrow view
of economic life. It is frequently limited to a specific sector of the economy,
and the demands are perceived in isolation of more general issues. The framework
of the national character of the economy is absent from most union demands. A
call for wage increase, for example, is a frequent union demand. The
consequences of this event on the competitiveness of the product in
international markets is rarely considered. While many political groups catered
to the nascent labor movement in Syria by uncritical endorsement of unionism,and admittedly achieved political gain because of this endorsement, Saadeh
had the intellectual foresight and the political courage to objectively assess
the benefits and drawbacks of unionism in Syria. His resistance to unbridled
unionism is not only on the basis of the principle of safeguarding primarily the
interest of the entire nation, but also on the realization that unionism in
Syria has frequently been exploited by political exploiters, duped by
capitalists or controlled and emasculated by 'socialist' governments. Based on
these theoretical and observational factors, Saadeh calls for organization of
productivity and labor on the basis of specialization, but only as a means of
improved productivity and streamlined management. The economic system, however,
does not call for militant unionism because it presupposes the application of
the economic view within the framework of a Social Nationalist state.

Formation of strong armed forces which will
be effective in determining the destiny of the country and the nation.

In international competition of national
interests, national right is recognized only to the extent it is supported by
the power of the nation. The vital interests of a nation in this struggle cannot
be protected except by force in its material and intellectual aspects. Force is
the decisive factor in affirming or denying nationalrights.

By the armed forces we understand the army, the
navy and the air force. The art of war has reached such an advanced level that
it is incumbent upon us to be always in a state complete military preparedness.
The whole Syrian nation must be well armed and prepared. We have witnessed with
distress parts of our country taken away and annexed to foreign countries
because we have lost our military power. We are resolved not to let this state
of helplessness continue. We are determined to turn the tide so that we may
regain all our territory and recover the sources of our strength and vitality.

It is on our own strength that we wish to depend
in securing our rights and protecting our interests. We are mobilizing and
preparing for our survival and preeminence in the struggle for existence.
Survival and victory shall inevitably be our lot.

The promulgation of a principle
related to military preparedness may at first glance appear unusual in a
document that presents a doctrine of national renaissance. The absence of such a
principle, however, would have been a serious flaw. The modern history of Syria
is the clearest indication for the need for such a principle. The loss of
Alpxandretta, Palestine and other Syria territories would have been averted had
the Syrian nation had military power guided by a nationally sound government. It
is important to remember that Saadeh is not talking about armed forces in a
separate sense, but of armed forces in the service of the Syrian nation and its
cause. An armed Syrian populace without the guidance and discipline of Social
Nationalism is a curse on Syria as the armed civil conflicts of recent years
attest. Linking the formation of strong armed forces to a general military
preparedness of the Syrian nation, implies that the armed forces envisaged are
intensely linked with the nation. In a sense there no separateness in direction
and aim between the armed forces and the nation struggling for survival and
prosperity. The armed forces are a specialized organ of the nation.

It is useful at this juncture to
examine the national anthem that Saadeh wrote during his imprisonment in the
1930s. Distinctly from other anthems that extol aggression (the French La
Marseillaise and the US Star Spangled Banner), the Social Nationalist anthem is
directed at the peace of Syria and centers on the beautiful elements of its land
and people and the sublime principles that the SSNP brings. The SSNP thus seeks
peace for Syria, but it is the peace of a liberated unified and prosperous Syria
where a Social Nationalist order prevails. The establishment and protection of
such a peace is the function of the Syrian armed forces.

The aim of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party is the creation of a
Syrian Social Nationalist renaissance which will fulfill its declared principles
and return the Syrian nation to vitality and strength; the organization of a
movement seeking the complete independence of the Syrian nation and the
vindication of its sovereignty; the establishment of a new order to protect its
interest and raise its standard of living; and the endeavor to form an Arab
front.

It is clear from this article that national
revival is the central theme in the program of the Syrian Social Nationalist
Party. The Social Nationalist Movement aims at laying down the foundations of
the concept of nationhood in Syria and the guaranteeing of the very life of the
Syrian nation and the creation of the conditions necessary for its progress and
unity, as well as setting up of a new social-national order. This far reaching
aim of the Party is of the utmost importance because it is not restricted to the
treatment of a particular political form but affects the very foundations of
nationhood and the basic principles of national life. The purpose of the Party
is the direction of the Syrian nation towards progress and prosperity and the
activation of the elements of national energy latent in Syria. This national
energy once fully developed will crush forces of reaction, free thenation from apathy and adherence to antiquated
beliefs and place an insuperable obstacle in the way of foreign powers
threatening the interests of the millions of Syrians and their very existence.
The Party also aims at dissemination of new ideas expressing our new outlook on
life and our Social Nationalist creed.

The aim of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party is
an all-embracing one directed towards the examination of the foundations of
national life in all its aspects, of the basic issues of the Social Nationalist
society: economic, social, political, spiritual, moral, and of the final lofty
ends of existence. It also comprises the national ideals, the significance of
independence and the establishment of healthy nationalist society. This in turn
implies a new intellectual ethical outlook and a new theory of values.
Consequently, the fundamental and reform principles of the Party reflect a new
and complete philosophy of life.

A complementary part of the foreign policy of the
Party is the creation of an Arab Front from the Arab nations. This front should
serve as a bulwark against foreign imperialistic ambitions and prove of
considerable moment in deciding the major political questions.

Syria is one of the Arab nations and indeed is
the nation qualified to lead the Arab world as the Syrian Social Nationalist
Party proves conclusively. It is obvious that a nation with no internal
cohesiveness to insure its unity and progress cannot help revive other nations
andlead them along
the path of progress and success. Syrian nationalism is the only genuine
practical way, the first prerequisite for the awakening of the Syrian nation and
its ability to work for the Arab Cause.

Those who believe that the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party seeks Syria's withdrawal from the Arab World, because they do
not distinguish between Syrian national awakening and the Pan-Arab cause, are
grossly mistaken.

We shall never relinquish our position in the
Arab World, nor our mission to the Arab World. We want first and foremost to be
strong in order to accomplish our mission more adequately. Syria must forge
ahead in its national revival so that it can fulfill its great mission.

This comprehensive outlook of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party represents an idealistic conception of national life. The
Party does not intend to confine this broad outlook with its far-reaching
consequences to Syria alone, but it intends to pass it on to our sister Arab
nations through cultural activities, mutual understanding and exchange of
opinions, not by means of the destruction of the identity of those Arab nations
and the imposition of those principles on them by force.

As to the political aspect of the Party's aims,
the Party considers that from the internal point of view, the Lebanese question
arose from subsidiary reasons which were valid at a time when the concept of the
state was still a religious concept. But the principles of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party affirm the national social-legal basis of statehood. Through
the realization of the principles of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, those
reasons for Lebanese isolation would cease to be justified.

As regards the Arab World, the Party favors
recourse to conferences and voluntary alliances, as the only practical way to
cooperation between Arab nations. The Party favors the formation of an Arab
Front of definite moment in international politics. National sovereignty,
however, should not be surrendered in such pacts and alliances.